Book Review of “The Ninth Child” by Sally Magnusson

This novel, set in mid 19^th century Scotland and the Isle of Wight, is an absorbing tale of stalking and child-theft in a landscape where myth and superstition are never far away from becoming reality, even as technological progress improves the lot of mankind. The author does not flinch from showing the reader either the dangers of civil engineering, as far as the Navvies are concerned, or the utterly dreadful, disease-ridden conditions in the city of Glasgow which an unprecedented civil engineering project is designed to address. Men do difficult and dangerous work, because it is needed desperately.

Where the author finds fault with the ethos of the age where many such improvements are made, is that women were not supposed to play much of a part in the enterprise. The preview of this work said that it was a great age for innovation but a bad time to be a woman. In fact, The Ninth Child shows us that the mid 19^th century was the time when even that began to change. There are some scenes involving Queen Victoria and it would be quite impossible to write an accurate portrait of the changing role of women in 19^th century Britain that did not refer to her! But the author shows us other, strong-willed Victorian women as well, both high and low.

This is a thriller, too, and it keeps up the tension until the end. Well told -and the author chooses the tensest part of the drama to show us why there is no word for “manana” in Gaelic, because there is no need for such indecent haste. 

The Ninth Child is published by  John Murray Press (Two Roads) on the 19th of March 2020.

It is available from Amazon, Waterstones and other retailers.